Effects Of Plastic On The Environment

There is rising unease about throwing out plastic products as well as the accumulation of plastic products in our oceans and landfills. This poses problems for all species in the environment, such as animals becoming tangled in smaller products, organisms consuming the products, or transferring chemicals directly to humans in the surrounding environment. Plastic products being dumped into landfills is not sustainable for our present and future environment. A small amount of fossil fuels is being used to create plastic products. The fossil fuels are practically wasted because the products are cheaply made and are thrown out shortly after purchase. Depleting the amount of fossil fuels, rapidly filling up landfills, and manufacturing briefly used plastic products is not sustainable for our environment. Increasing the amount of recycling, cutting down on plastic production, and reducing on the amount of littering are all valuable solutions to cut down the amount of plastic in landfills. (Thompson, Moore, vom Saal,

When evaluating the environmental impact of polyethylene we need to take into consideration the input materials, and the amount of energy and emissions/wastes generated by the production processes. Although polyethylene presents fewer environmental hazards than other polymers, its production requires both hydrocarbons and chlorine; chlorine makes plastic’s impact on the environment even greater that it would if only hydrocarbons were required (Frosch & Gallopoulos, 1989). The use of non-renewable resources, chlorine and the energy-intensive nature of the production cycle itself together with the worldwide large-scale production of polyethylene and derivates, approximately 80 million metric tons per year (Piringer & Baner, 2008), make the environmental and human safety impact of polyethylene significant.

The author proves the falsehood of the long known assumption that plastic is a threat to our planet. By citing the research done by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the author convinces his readers that not only are plastic bags not harmful as people think, but also beneficial. This surprises his audience and shows them how exaggerated the cries of environmentalists, which gets the readers wondering what else have they falsely believed in and what other information are paper-bags advocates hiding from them, and that pulls them into the argument and intrigues them further. Additionally, Summers lists the harmful consequences of using reusable bags by presenting research results and observations. This alarms the audience and raises concern in their

150,000 tons of plastic are littered into our ocean each year, yet we do nothing to stop it. Plastic is capable of being deformed continuously and permanently in any direction without rupture, making it almost impossible for the plastic to disintegrate. Our population uses plastic for almost everything, once these objects are used they are left in the street, beaches, and other places, natural sources then carry the objects into the oceans. There, the plastic becomes stuck in currents, where it takes years to disintegrate. The only people benefiting from this are companies who produced the plastic. The problem is this plastic is harming marine life. Some simple solutions to this include using reusable water bottles instead of plastic water

Each year there is an increase in demands for plastic bags, and therefore more are shipped, creating further environmental pollution concerns. This increase in demand has lead to the phenomenal upsurge in the use and misuse of plastic bags globally, both in developed and developing countries. Statistics show that 4 to 5 trillion plastic bags are produced per annum, whereby North America and Western Europe account for nearly 80% (Geographical, 2005; Reusable Bags, 2005). Cheeseman (2007) states that approximately “380 billion plastic shopping bags are used in the United States annually”; in turn, only 0.6% of this is recycled.

Every year, millions of tons of plastic are tossed into the ocean, harming all types of marine animals as well as the environment. Hundreds of marine mammals like whales and dolphins are found washed ashore filled with bottle caps, plastic bags and basically anything they can swallow. Not only does plastic pollution harm marine life, but it affects the entire ecosystem. If a predator is dependent on a certain species for prey and the predator has a role in the environment, it is important for the prey to not be disturbed by pollution. If that species of prey were to go extinct, then the predator species could be seriously impacted as a result. These problems warrant the need for more research into the magnitude and causes of plastic

Summers’ facts and examples in this article to support his claim that banning plastic bags would be bad. A fact that he uses in his article is that the bill would have prohibited grocery stores and convenience stores at least $2 million in gross annual sales. People often debate that plastic bags hurt the planet and marine life. However, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, plastic bags, sacks, and wraps make up about 1.6 percent of all solid waste materials. Out of that little percent, high-density polyethylene (HDPE) bags, the most common plastic grocery bag, only make up about 0.3 percent of them.

Australians approximately use 6.9 billion plastic bags per year (Errata Nolan ITU, 2002). The high consumption of plastic bags highlights one outstanding issue. The adverse impact, consumption and disposal of plastic bags have towards the environment. This involves the resources used to make

The over consumption of plastic bags imposes pollution and damage on the environment leading to negative externalities (Hubbard & O’Brien, 2014, 323). This is due to the fact that the social cost of plastic bags and their damage on the environment being greater than the private cost of production, as can be shown in Figure

Everyday people visit grocery stores where the majority of products sold are liquids wrapped in plastic. The top sold item in supermarkets today is water. Many people believe that drinking bottled water in grocery stores is safer than drinking tap water, and as a result, plastic is damaging our animal life and oceans. These plastic bottles are often stored in open face refrigerators, freezers and non refrigerated aisles. Unfortunately plastic, after manufactured with coal, is simply used once then thrown away. It is within our reach to educate the general public on more viable resources for obtaining drinking water rather than encourage

e world changed, my first grandson Giovanni was born. It was truly an inspiring moment. Suddenly, I imagined, leaving Giovanni's generation with a clean, water-rich planet, beautiful blue skies, multiple species, and forests. Were he can stand surrounded by gorgeous scenery, a soft cool breeze of clean air blowing by him, and hear the rivers calming movements. As you might already know, State and Federal legislation, has placed numerous bands, on plastic bags at retail and grocery stores. As a result, we will add huge amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Thus, Paper bags are worse for the environment, then plastic bags. The United States Environmental Protection Agency acknowledges that plastic bags depend on less energy to manufacture,

As the United States deals with the overwhelming amounts of waste building up, Nitin et al explain that “plastics take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to biodegrade” once they are discarded (Nitin). Changes in recycling methods can no longer keep up with the exorbitant amount of waste produced in the United States. This is why some states choose to take their initiative one step further by placing either fees or a ban on the use of plastic bags. Due to the enormous waste the United States produces on a daily basis and the negative outcomes of this trash including adverse health effects, harmful impacts on nature, and the exponential piling of trash in landfills, the US government should ban plastic bags.

This research question aims to think deeper on the circumstances of the overuse of plastic and paper, and what could happen more to the animals/birds, our environment, and our bodies if consumers keep on using plastic and paper products. This research question should be asked to raise awareness to users and most importantly designers, so they consider using other eco friendly material in designing their products.

Introduction: Have you ever wanted to help the environment, but you just didn’t know how? When we go shopping we see a lot of people carrying bags made of plastic. I must admit; plastic bags can be very convenient at times, but the use of plastic bags has it disadvantages. If you knew about the dangers of the use of plastic bags, then I'm sure you will think twice about using plastic bags and use tote bags instead.

Five hundred billion used globally and one hundred billion of them end up in U.S. landfills, taking about one thousand years to decompose, but only 5.2 percent were recycled (Borrud, 2007, p.75).-These are the figures plastic bags have produced every year. Human beings invented plastic bags for the convenience of carriers and packers. However, just as other great inventions, say, nuclear energy and biotechnology, plastic bags are causing serious issues like global warming, environment pollution and energy consumption. They are gradually becoming sword towards ourselves. In responding to this problem, the city of San Francisco has become the trail blazer to prohibit non-biodegradable plastic bags in its large supermarkets and pharmacies.